Tomatoes and squash

The garden's first tomatoes and squash:

I checked on this squash a few days before picking it, and it was definitely still adolescent. Then, the next time I looked, it was enormous! I'm going bike camping tomorrow up the C&O Canal with Nils and a couple other folks, and bringing the squash along to put in foil packet dinners.

Meanwhile, here are the infant carrots that I pulled while trying to make room for their siblings:

All Things Me

There are a couple things that are funny about this ad I saw on my blog.

One, the amusing spectacle of Yahoo claiming to have all things Teague-themed. I guess there could be some from its use as a family or city name...

Two, Yahoo is advertising on Google AdWords? Isn't that a market where they compete fiercely?

iPhone

When the first iPhone came out, I restrained myself by saying that I could let myself get one as soon as it 1) moved beyond the first-generation device, and 2) had GPS built-in. The iPhone 3G fulfills both conditions, but I was feeling a little bit of consumer guilt, as well as some nausea about the expensive service plans. And the battery life isn't that great.

However, my 3-year-old phone is increasingly cranky, and...I really want an iPhone. So today I went to the AT&T store a few blocks from my office (two stories, it's palatial...if you missed the logos, it could be confused for a high-end boutique of some sort). They're sold out, of course, but you can put down a deposit to have them let you know when they get one with your name on it.

REP: [giving me her card] I'll call you when it comes in. I promise I'll call you right away.

ME: Have lots of people been calling you to check up?

REP: Uh, yeah. Like, it's 7 AM and they just talked to me the night before -- "No, your phone has not come in yet."

ME: So you're saying they're anxious.

REP: You could say that.

I'm not obsessed, but it will be pretty sweet when I get it. And, by overhearing the person in front of me in line, I discovered that government employees get 15% off all service plans. I never, ever would have thought to ask about that -- score!

Songs of the Moment (An Occasional Feature)

> The Bad Plus - Anthem for the Earnest [YouTube]
> Silver Jews - Pet Politics
> Constantines - Nighttime/Anytime (It's Alright) [YouTube]
> Modest Mouse - Broke [YouTube]
> Liars - Tumbling Walls Buried Me in the Debris with ESG
> Ben Folds Five - Army [YouTube]
> Flaming Lips - Waitin' for a Superman [YouTube]

Ah, marketing

From an article in the LA Times on how car makers are having trouble selling SUVs amid the rise in fuel prices:

"Every carmaker is having the same conversation: 'How do we motivate people to buy in a climate when oil is $140 a barrel?' " said Rob Schwartz, executive creative director at TBWA/Chiat/Day, a Los Angeles ad agency.

To translate: "How can we help people make bad decisions that benefit us?"

Housemate hunting

So, Zach has decided to move out (to a cheaper place) and we're looking for a housemate again. My Craigslist posting, carefully constructed to attract the right kind of person, is the primary means for this. It produced plenty of email traffic with folks asking if their cat can come with them, if they can interview from the foreign country they're currently working in, and sharing all of the typical biographical details. We had our open house tonight, and just like last summer, there were two guys who knew each other from meeting at other places they were looking at.

One prospective housemate remarked that it appears to be obligatory that any group house have at least one member who fights the good fight at a world-saving nonprofit of some sort...that would be Nils in our house. Among those who came to look, it was a very DC slice of occupations, including:

• a guy who works for the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy


• a journalist for El Pais, looking for a place to live until December while she covers the U.S. election


• the guy from City Bikes who sold me my Cross-Check

More people are coming on Saturday, they have to tell us by Saturday evening if they're interested, and we'll decide by Monday. Whew.

July 4th weekend

It was a good long weekend. Today Zach, Emily, Lisa and I went hiking on the Veach Gap trail in George Washington National Forest, which is northwest of Shenandoah National Park. The day was overcast, but it didn't rain.

A view of the Susquehanna River from the overlook at the end of the hike:

Where there were also lots of wild blueberries to eat!


And we saw a bear! No picture of that, though.

Happy 4th of July

From DC

Overheard in DC

Man in a suit, talking very animatedly in the crosswalk as I waited for a red light on my bike:
"...running [unintelligible] in the embassy. I told you, those Kurds are crazy! They'll sell us snake oil..."

I'm not totally sure I got that last phrase right, but "snake oil" was in there.

Schadenfreudachino

In Venti Retreat, 600 Starbucks to Close, reads a headline in the Washington Post this evening. That an economic downturn would cause some to reconsider spending $4 on coffee is not a huge surprise, and fits nicely into the narrative that the media is looking for right now. I've always sort of resented Starbucks' creation of a self-important, yuppified language for small, medium and large. For me, it epitomizes their business strategy of packaging up your self-regard, stamping "validated" on it, and selling it back to you.

So the use of Starbucks lingo to describe their difficulties admittedly comes with a touch of schadenfreude. But things get a bit out of hand with a later sentence in that article, which I picture the reporter cackling maniacally while composing: "Throw in the cash-strapped consumer, stung by high gas prices and soaring food costs, and Starbucks has found itself with a venti frappuproblem." Indeed.